World of Warcraft Role-play: Common mistakes to avoid!

When role-playing for the very first time, it is very easy to make slip-ups or mistakes that will later on make you cringe to your back teeth! This short list will help you spot any mistakes long before they arise and help you fix them!

One of the biggest mistake any new role-player makes is stepping into the shining new world without any idea about the lore involved. Whilst it is understood everywhere that the game is just that, it is a brilliant idea to do some research about the race and class you wish to play, and also the history of the world itself. Whilst your character doesn't have to know all this history, it will help you avoid making mistakes in your story! Some very good sites to help with this are WoWWiki and WoWpedia.

Being related to canon lore characters is never a good idea. Trying to play Illidian's illegitimate daughter of the sister of Arthas will just get you laughed at or ignored, no matter how well, or badly, you play the character for one simple reason: they do not exist. Illidian didn't have any children, Arthas only had one sister, and creating any more for the purpose of your story just messes with the lore and with other people's storylines as well!

Don't take unique titles for yourself that you have no way of supporting. An example of this would be calling yourself Ranger-General of Quel'thalas or High Commander of the Alliance. These roles are already filled by people, and are unique, so therefore cannot be filled by you, no matter how powerful your character is. Depending on the guild you are in, it might be possible to fill those roles for your guild, however trying to fill the positions of command that Blizzard creates will be frowned upon.

When role-playing, never tell any other character how they must react. This is called “godemoting”, and really annoys everyone that it happens to. An example of this would be “Person 1 punches Person 2, knocking out three of their teeth”. This gives the other player no choice in the matter, and means that things are happening to the character that the player doesn't necessary want to happen. A better to say it would be “Person 1 throws a punch at Person 2. Should it land properly, it will knock out three of Person 2's teeth.” This way, Person 2 can chose whether or not the punch lands, and how much damage it will do!

This next one isn't really a mistake, but more of a tip. On most keyboards, there is a / next to your Numlock key that toggles whether or not a character is walking. When travelling around settlement's and cities, it is a good idea to make your character walk, as realistically a person would not run around in cities and towns as well as out in the countryside without heart failure! One other thing to remember is not to jump around everywhere. After all, in real life, no one jumps instead of walks, and when role-playing it is important to reflect this!

Your character cannot see the name/class of other peoples character. For sure, it might be pretty easy to guess if they are wearing plate armour and carrying a huge sword, or spend all their time preaching about the Light, it wouldn't take to much to guess. However, your character wouldn't be able to say “Hello, warrior!” to someone who was in a pretty dress or casual clothing and unarmed, as you wouldn't be able to tell that they were a warrior from their appearance.Likewise, your character cannot go up to another character they have never met and call them by name, for your character would not know it! If you do accidentally slip up,however, you could say that you overheard someone else mention it! The only real class you can tell by their appearance is a Death Knight, for no matter what their armour or weapon, the glowing blue eyes gives it all away!

I am going to finish on the magical seven with one last tip: don't role-play a dragon, demon,or any other strange lore-breaking class! With dragons, it is very rare that a dragon would be interacting with mortals, and even if they were, they would be completely hidden. Therefore, role-playing a dragon well would mean that nobody knew you were a dragon, and thus you would lose all the benefits of being a dragon! Demons are a bad idea because they are kill on sight everywhere unless bound to a warlock. As warlocks generally aren't allowed their pets out in capitals anyway, your role-play would be limited to running screaming from people wanting to kill you, or hiding in Felwood and Outland! Most role-players avoid lore-breaking or infeasible classes, so unless you are only going to play that character for a storyline or with friends, it's best to steer clear! If you need help checking or making a concept, the role-playing forums are full of friendly people that can and will help out!

One thing that it is always best to remember is to have fun. Make a character,get stuck into it and enjoy it, because I can honestly say that role-playing in WoW is some of the best fun I have every had!